Sorry, I have not been on for a while, but I had decisions to make that might have been clouded had I been coming on here as regularly as I was.
As of last night, Sophie is no longer living with us.
I had a visit from my Housing Officer on Monday to say that complaints had been received about the dogs barking and I was being given time to "sort the problem". :
: I knew it was coming, as I had received a few snide comments from a couple of neighbours in the past few weeks.
Anyone that has been on COL for a while will know the saga of Sophie and her Separation Anxiety and the difficulties I have encountered in trying to get her to relax when I am either not in the house, or indeed in the room.
I have tried every possible measure and after getting Beau, she did seem to pick up and there were periods where she could be crated and be ok, not great, but quietish. But, eventually she would start howling, then Beau would join in too. She was not interested in Beau when I was not in the house.
For the last 2-3 weeks, I have hardly left them in the house alone at any point apart from when I am at work in the morning. I have cancelled shopping, parents evenings, all sorts - just because I couldn't risk them barking when I was out. So if Paul was not able to stay in the house with them, then I did. Paul is only 12, and he is hardly ever in, he is always out with his pals, and I can't expect him to stay in just to keep Sophie quiet.
That's not right, and you can't live your life like that, and in the long run was just making matters worse as they had someone there 24/7.
I went to see my breeder friend that I got Sophie and Beau from last night to tell her what has happened and it was one of the hardest conversations I have ever had to take part in. I love my Sophie, but I was worried sick about the damage that she may be doing to her heart in the long run with getting herself worked up into a frenzy day after day. So my friend took her back, to the house where she lived for the first 5.5yrs of her life.
So, I still have Beau until Sunday, to see how he will cope on his own, but I am not holding my breath as he has always lived with other dogs too and he is now 10mths old.
I am off work today, I just couldn't face it after being in tears most of last night. I feel so guilty that things didn't work out, but I don't know what else I could have done - Sophie needed an "emotional crutch" with her all day every day, and I can't give her that, no matter how much I wanted to.
Sorry this is such a long posting, and I am sure there will be many negative comments at what I have done, and may still have to do with Beau, but I was making myself ill worrying about it every time I wanted to step outside the front door, and a decision had to be made for all our sakes.
